


My Way or the Highway

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Established Relationship, Immortal Found Family, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Pre-Canon, Temporary Character Death, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27364333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Maybe having a gun held on them was supposed to be intimidating but it had long since lost its effect so it was hard to be sure.Prompt: Held at Gunpoint
Relationships: Andy | Andromache & Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Comments: 4
Kudos: 124





	My Way or the Highway

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and none of them are necessarily connected to each other.

In comparison to other things they had to deal with in their long, moderately violent lives, one thing that was somewhat rare was someone coming into where they were staying, getting the jump on them, and actually getting the better of them.

First off, even in times between missions where they remained together, they still usually had someone on watch even if it could easily be explained away as one of them not going to sleep until late or another waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep because they’d just come from a completely different time zone.

Then there was the fact that most of the time they were in one of their safe houses and they’d chosen those for the sake of being easily secured and defended even before they put their personal touches to the places.

But they didn’t have safe houses absolutely everywhere. And they were only human and no amount of years alive meant they were perfect.

What possibly worked against them the most this time was that they weren’t even there for a job. They were just passing through on their way to meet a contact for a possible job and had decided to get a motel room for the night. Well, Joe had pleaded with Andy to let them sleep in a bed for one night before hitting the job, wearing her down in a way only Joe could or even tried. Not that he’d needed to work too hard about this: when it came to sleep and being just a little more comfortable while sleeping, Andy usually wasn’t too difficult to convince when they weren’t officially on mission.

They’d ended up just getting one room with two beds, not something uncommon for them, but that had worked against them this time around.

Nicky and Joe had been in the bed further from the door while Booker and Andy took the other bed. For once, that wasn’t ideal as when their room was broken into, the people came through the window first and so Booker and Andy sat up into the line of fire of Nicky waking up with gun in hand. He stopped himself from firing even as he crowded back into Joe protectively, covering him from sight, having felt his love startle awake but not feeling the touch to his hip or back that let him know Joe was really aware yet.

Andy and Booker were moving to the defensive, Booker closest to the door and window. But Nicky watched as his brother was struck over the head with a baton before he could get too far. He fell off the side of the bed and to the floor with the one who’d hit him striking him again and that would keep him unconscious for about a minute while he healed.

Andy had dropped to the floor between the beds with a smooth roll and that gave Nicky the chance he needed to take out all three people already in the room with three clean, quick shots.

Between the second and third shot was when he felt the touch to his lower back from Joe and he shifted forward so his love would be free to move. Joe’s gun was between the mattress and the box spring and he felt Joe move off the bed. Andy was moving to the foot of her bed, one of her knives in hand and she was approaching the space between the window and the door in a low crawl, Nicky sliding down to kneel between the beds where she had been and to where he could watch for any movement in the window. He could hear movement outside and knew this wasn’t over. He heard Joe behind him, knowing he would be laying down on the floor behind the bed and focusing on the door, watching for movement in the small space under the door.

He then recalled the layout of the motel and the building next to it and quickly dropped down behind the bed just before there was a soft thud impacting the bed behind him. “Sniper,” he called in warning to the others. And where Booker had been brought down, he was in full view of the window and the sniper and he wouldn’t be able to move before getting shot. Hopefully he’d at least been awake to hear that and would stay still.

But then it didn’t matter as there was a metal clattering behind him and he heard Joe let out a cuss before he started coughing. A second canister followed almost immediately, hitting the wall and bouncing to stop next to Nicky and he barely had time to realize it was some sort of knock-out gas before his body was too numb to do anything about it.

He was only somewhat aware of being grabbed and carried out of the room and then set into a vehicle, another body landing next to him. The gas was worked out of his system quicker than it would anyone else but it was still longer than he would have liked to be fully aware that he was in a trunk and his wrists were zip-tied together. He reached out for the other person in the trunk and his fingers brushed against a soft face so it was Andy.

“Are you back yet?” he asked in Greek, figuring it was a language their captors were unlikely to speak.

She responded immediately. “Mostly. I took three out when they came into the room too early for the gas to have really gotten to me. I wasn’t able to get a good count of who’s left, though.” Her hands came up to rest on Nicky’s in a quick comfort. “Booker had woken up by the time they hit us with the gas. They’ll probably assume he won’t be all there when he does wake up with how they hit him, assume he has a concussion. That’ll give us an opportunity.”

“Joe?” Nicky had to ask.

“He was out pretty quickly. Took a face full of that gas right away.”

“Let’s hope they didn’t throw him into his own trunk or he won’t have anyone to remind him to save his bad mood for when we can use it to our advantage.” He heard Andy give an amused sound.

These guys woke Joe up for no good reason: he would be in a bad mood and that would make him more antagonistic than he could normally be. Nicky’s presence was a good reminder for him to rein it in and Andy could usually time a pointed look or just give a short command of his name and focus Joe. But Booker could just as easily take Joe one way or the other and if he was alone, he would definitely be antagonistic.

Nicky didn’t necessarily mind that Joe tended toward that approach with people who tried to hold them. He just didn’t want Joe to push things too far before they were all together.

They felt the car turn off pavement and onto gravel, both of them needing to brace themselves from being tossed around too badly, Andy cussing regularly and loud enough that the people in the car would definitely hear her as the car took a turn too quickly and made them bump into something painfully.

“We aren’t killing them before throwing them in here and taking a nice, long drive,” she declared after Nicky heard her thump her head against the side of the trunk solidly.

“Such cruelty, Andromache,” Nicky teased.

Shortly after, the car came to a stop and Nicky heard at least one more pull up behind them. And then he counted doors opening and closing, certain he counted eleven and possibly a sliding door.

“I think fifteen,” Andy said, mostly confirming Nicky’s count. “Not the worst numbers we’ve had to deal with.”

“Though if you really don’t want to kill them until they get to ride in the trunk, it will become exceedingly difficult,” Nicky retorted quietly.

Andy gave an exaggerated sigh. “I guess I can give up on that this time.”

The trunk was opened and they weren’t even given the chance to try and fight against the hands grabbing at them, Andy being pulled out first since she was the furthest out, Nicky being yanked out right after.

He immediately looked around for Joe and Booker, seeing them around the car that had pulled in behind them. Booker was moving around a bit unsteadily, putting on a dazed act, the blood from where he’d been hit drying down the side of his face and staining his hair and beard. Joe looked fine as well, being pulled along by a man on each arm and he was calling enough obscenities to everyone, pulling attention from the rest of them in a way Nicky knew was more strategic than genuine rage. The one on his right apparently got fed up with his struggling as he suddenly turned and drove his knee roughly into Joe’s stomach, knocking the breath from him and making it easier to pull him the rest of the way toward Nicky and Andy.

Nicky pulled against the ones holding him down at the shoulders as Joe was hit, not being able to stop himself from the thoughtless action of defending his heart.

He would always strike down anyone who hurt his Yusuf. Nothing would stop that.

The men started talking to each other and there were enough hints in what they said that Nicky figured out they were remnants of what had been a powerful gang in the area that they had taken out the leaders of a few months ago. So it was likely that someone saw them either coming into town or happened to see them at the motel and they recognized them. They hadn’t needed to take out everyone at the time so they hadn’t bothered. And based on who they saw here, even though these guys had gotten the jump on them, they were still far from a threat. They set themselves up for death when they came into the motel room instead of just ignoring the ones who had taken out their bosses, simple as that.

Joe glanced over at Andy, checking in quickly before he looked to Nicky and Nicky saw the apology there. Joe knew Nicky hated when he decided to do something like this, drawing attention in a way that would likely result in him getting killed, but also knew it would be to their advantage.

Joe started laughing, the men holding him up shaking him to try and get him to shut up. “You’re really that stupid? You track down the people responsible for taking out the brains and brawn behind your operation and you think the smartest thing to do is put yourself in our line of fire? What, did you think you could actually succeed in anything against us? Definitely not the brains around here.”

One of the men stepped toward Joe aggressively, reaching out and grabbing a handful of his hair to pull him up, so he was awkwardly between kneeling and standing. Nicky again pulled against the hands holding him in place.

The man holding onto Joe glanced back at Nicky before smirking and pulling out a gun, rubbing the barrel down Joe’s face. “What, worried I’ll fuck him up too much for even you to love anymore?” he threatened and Nicky just glared at him. “I mean, I guess he’s pretty enough even for someone who doesn’t swing that way. A hole’s a hole, right?”

The man had made the mistake of moving in too close and the guys holding onto Joe had loosened their grip so he could pull Joe around. It was more than enough leeway for Joe to easily punch his fists into the man’s groin. He was released immediately and he surged forward into the man just barely registering anything through the sudden pain and he grabbed the gun, shifting his grip enough to take out the ones holding onto Andy before gunshots from a few feet away sounded and he was hit twice in the chest and once in the face, dead before he fell.

Andy was already taking advantage of the disruption and had grabbed one of the fallen men’s gun and started shooting. Booker dropped his act and was working on breaking free of the hands holding him in place, it being easy enough with their focus being split between what was happening and that they hadn’t been needing to hold onto him too tightly.

And Nicky had dropped his weight to take his holders down to the ground, taking a knife sticking out from one of their belts and slitting both their throats in a smooth motion before he rolled over to throw the knife into the back of another man who had just started charging at him. He grabbed a loose gun and started firing alongside Andy to take the rest out.

Joe was just gasping back to life as they finished up and Nicky was standing and moving toward him. The man that had been threatening Joe was still squirming on the ground and Nicky crouched down in front of him.

He leaned in close and said in an even voice, “You do not touch my Joe as you did and survive.” And he shot the man up through his head from his chin and then tossed the gun away.

He turned his full attention to Joe as his love was wiping at the blood that had dripped down through his beard looking irritated. “Think they got any bottled water in one of these cars? I need to at least rinse off before I can get to a shower. Why do they always hit the face?”

“Well you do try to get them irritated with yours,” Booker shot back easily and Joe muttered his discontent. Nicky reached for him and took his hand, squeezing it and getting a comforting smile in return.

Nicky truly hated it when Joe decided to push them to hurting or even killing him to distract people enough that the rest of them could get free. He wasn’t the only one that could accomplish that result, of course, but he was the one who could usually do it the fastest. Even with as much of an asshole as Booker could be, he wasn’t as good of a character study as Joe was.

People liked to think the most intimidating thing they could do was wave a gun in someone’s face. Not enough of them considered that it was something that would have stopped being intimidating to this particular group of people even if they hadn’t been immortal. It just stopped being so much of a threat when it was experienced _so_ often. And guns were much easier to take from people than they assumed.

Joe looked around them, taking in all the carnage that he’d missed out on. He let out a groan and complained, “And now we have to clean up this mess and we’re not getting any more sleep tonight.”

Nicky couldn’t help but give a smile as he leaned his forehead against Joe’s briefly.

When Andy spoke from behind Nicky, she sounded just as irritated. “Not like we could go back to sleep in a room shot up with the window busted out. We get to go back and grab our stuff and leave. We’ll get another room a few towns over and get our sleep.”

Joe grinned as he moved to stand. “You got it, boss! I call making that run.” He was off toward the car parked furthest away before they could say anything else.

Andy sighed and said loudly, “That asshole. He knew I was going to send Booker back to the motel. He’s just avoiding the cleanup.”

“You guys made the mess. You get to clean it up!”

Nicky sighed and shook his head with equal parts amusement and frustration. “I hate it when he does that,” he acknowledged aloud and Andy laid her hand on his shoulder briefly as she walked by.

“Yeah, we all do. Makes it suck even more that it works most of the time. Let’s get this cleaned up and be ready to leave as soon as he gets back. We won’t even get on his case for taking the shower he’s really heading back for. It’ll at least help his mood for the rude wake-up call.”

Because all three of them knew that Joe’s joking attitude had been him covering up how disappointed with himself he was at how slowly he woke up, always thinking that if he could be more like Nicky it would make all the difference. Nicky had stopped trying to convince him otherwise and simply made sure he was there for his love when he came back and made sure he didn’t get too deeply upset. Not for long anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
